What do you like best about Softr?
Softr is unique in that it helps anyone to present complicated sets of data into a meaningful, dynamic way of viewing it, in a clean filterable, searchable workflow. What used to require high end data specialists is now accessible to anyone with an understanding of business processes. It's strength is in being extremely intuitive to use on the face of it, with more depth to its functionality as you grow into the platform.
I use data from Airtable, integrating our backend data sources with Softr's more refined front end interface, providing the ability to beautifully set out long lists of data records that can be clicked through to view more detail. of that record. Unlike Airtable, Softr provides far more users at a better (more appropriate) price point that's most realistic for medium size companies – and you can assign team roles to restrict visibility of certain records etc. It works beautifully.
Using Airtable, Softr has methods of cacheing data so that it's fast and responsive in an App style way. There are odd occasions when for whatever reason the data doesn't load immediately, perhaps when their servers are busy, which is irritating at times, but it's generally stable. The load times of Airtable data won't be as fast as Softr's own database optoin, which is worth trying. However, I currently prefer Airtable's proven data architecture for building from.
Support wise, Softr are usually very quick to reply with a vibrant and responsive community for additional help. Softr's chat support channel is responsive and you never feel in the lurch. Data can be complicated, so there will be times it gets frustrating, but it's usually user confusion than errors their end.
AI is often implemented as a gimmick, but not at Softr. I've built an incredible Dashboard for a dataset using entirely their AI tool because I needed more sophisticated ways to dynamically display data than was available thorugh adding blocks manually. It can even add animation. It needs experimenting with, but I managed it straight off the bat.
Softr is a tool packed with value and does everything better than you'd expect. It's mobile responsive rendering is amazing, and not the least inferior to the desktop experience, which is quite an achievement, making searching records on the go a breeze (with internet!). There is no offline mode unfortunately, which is to be expected for a cloud based app! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What do you dislike about Softr?
As good as Softr is across the board, and as easy as it is to set it up, it does take time to master. Setting up API's with Airtable can be maddening, selecting the exact settings and naming conventions both expect for when say adding a webhook trigger in Airtable. This had me tearing my hair out at times. Whilst Softr has it's own global theme change offering, if you want to go bespoke in styling everything (colours, borders, labels, etc), then it can be a rough ride.... there's a gazillion style settings to apply across every block you add and every card etc. It's a lot of mouse clicking. Some personal style presets would help here. Softr provides a basic global theme style you can set, but it's limited to what it covers and more flexible assignment of single click style presets would be better.
Other issues are the sometimes slow to loading of data when their systems might be overloaded.... I don't know what causes it, but as mentioned before, it's not a deal breaker. It's an occasional irritation.
The navigation bar provided for the App to display the pages of data works ok, but it isn't amazing. I'd like to see more improvement here.
If to see more improvement of Softr, I'd say it's probably a bit too spaced out in terms of it's sizing. If coming from MS Access or other databases, you'll find Softr's interface more website like than database like in terms of how data is formatted and presented.
Another hurdle you will hit is the lack of flexibility to change header sizes to what you want exactly or include text wherever you want. You can do it to some extent, but it's way harder than it feels it should be. But that's truly nitpicking and minor. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.